Title Tag
Title tags, technically called title elements, define the title of a document and are required for all HTML/XHTML documents.Code Sample
<head> <title>Example Title</title>
</head> Optimal Format
Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Nameor
Brand Name | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keyword
Best Practices
Less than 70 characters, as this is the limit Google displays in search results.What is a Title Tag?
A title tag is the main text that describes an online document. It is the single most important on-page SEO element (behind overall content) and appears in three key places:
Browser
Title Tags show up in both the top of a browsers chrome and in applicable tabs.
Search Result Pages
Title tags also show up in search engine results.
External Websites
Many times, external websites (especially social media sites) will use the title of a web page as its link anchor text.
SEO Best Practice
The title element of a web page is meant to be an accurate and concise description of a page's content. This element creates value in three specific areas (covered below) and is critical to both user experience and search engine optimization:
Relevancy
Creating a descriptive, keyword-laden title tag is important for increasing rankings in search engines. The screen shot below comes from SEOmoz's survey of 37 influential thought leaders in the SEO industry on the search engine ranking factors. In that survey, 35 of the 37 participants said that keyword usage in the title tag was the most important place to use keywords to achieve high rankings.
As title tags are such an important part of search engine optimization, implementing best practices for title tags makes for terrific low-energy, high-impact SEO tasks. The recommendations below cover the critical parts of optimizing title tags for search engine and usability goals:
- Be Mindful of Length
70 characters is the maximum amount of characters that will display in the search results (the engines will show an ellipsis - "..." to indicate that a title tag has been cut off).
- Place Important Keywords Close to the Front of the Title Tag
According to SEOmoz's testing and experience, the closer to the start of the title tag a keyword is, the more helpful it will be for ranking and the more likely a user will be to click them in search results (See below).
- Leverage Branding
Many SEO firms recommend using the brand name at the end of a title tag instead, and there are times when this can be a better approach. The differentiating factor is the strength and awareness of the brand in the target market. If it is a well known brand, and it can make a difference in click-through rates in search results, the brand name should be first. If this is not the case, the keyword should be first.
- Consider Readability and Emotional Impact
Creating a compelling title tag will pull in more visits from the search results. Thus, it's important to not only think about optimization and keyword usage, but the entire user experience. The title tag is a new visitor's first interaction with your brand when they find it in a search result and should convey the most positive impression possible.
Browser
The title tag of any page appears at the top of Internet browsing software. While this is important for user experience, this location has been noted to receive a relatively small amount of attention from users.
Search Engine Result Pages
Using keywords in title tags means that search engines will "bold" (or highlight) those terms in the search results when a user has performed a query with those terms. This helps garner a greater visibility and a higher click-through rate.
Related Tools
- mozBar
The mozBar makes it easier to see relevant SEO metrics as you surf the web.
- Open Site Explorer
Open Site Explorer is a free tool that provides webmasters the ability to see up to 10000 links to any site or page on the web via the Linkscape web index.
External Resources
- HTML Title Tag
The official w3schools documentation on title tags.
- <title>: the most important element of a quality Web page
This is a short document which explains title tags, It is hosted and produced by the Quality Assurance Interest Group at W3C.
Related Guides
- SEOmoz | Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization
A comprehensive guide to the practice of search engine optimization for those unfamiliar with the subject.
